Never too old to be a first time donor

Alice

Front Royal, VA
October 30, 2013

I've worked in donor recruitment for the Red Cross for six years and just returned from a vacation to visit my family in Indiana. My father had given us several scares over the last six weeks with a fall, a brain bleed and surgery at age 85 to relieve pressure and just returned home from rehab. My sister and brother-in-law are the caregivers and I support them long distance. Somehow in the chaos of emergency rooms and intensive care, Dad and I never learned that he had received platelets to help with his clotting and recovery, but when he asked me if he could be a blood donor since he was off his blood thinner my sister told us about his transfusion. He will always be a fighter, but he will have to wait awhile to become a blood donor!